Wu's Blog

To achieve Auto Deploy I'd like to control PXE boot process. I want the vNICs of management network can do PXE boot only. That's because DHCP server may learns incorrect MAC address of management network if ESXi host boots up by non-management network NICs. The psychical servers are easy to disable PXE boot feature of individual network adapters in BIOS or server profile. Virtual machines is tricky. Following is how to do it. It's useful for home lab. Make sure your ESXi VM uses E1000E vNIC. You can only disable PXE boot for all vNICs in one time if type is vmxnet3. And nested ESXi doesn't support E1000 vNICs. Go to the VM folder and edit vmx file. You should see similar entries below. The vNIC name starts from  ethernet0 to ethernetn . It matches vmnic0 to vmnicx on ESXi. ethernet1 .virtualDev = "e1000e" I have 4 vNICs. I want to keep PXE boot for ethernet0 and ethernet1 . So I only disable it on rest of vNICs. Add following lines to vmx file. ethe

There are plenty of scripts to find tagged ESXi hosts. But what if you want to find out all ESXi hosts not be tagged? Following is a simple script: Compare-Object (( Get-VMHost | Get-TagAssignment ).Entity | select -uniq ) ( Get-VMHost ) The output is similar like following: InputObject SideIndicator ----------- ------------- esx1 =>   esx2 =>   esx3 => The => indicates ESXi hosts in InputObject are not tagged. If return is nothing, it means all ESXi hosts are tagged. Please refer to " Using the Compare-Object Cmdlet " for detail.

I wrote a post to talk about license of Windows image. If you want to disable upgrading in image. Create a file with name "noupgrade.txt" in "sources" folder.

I searched internet but there is no more information about this specific error message. When you upgrade to Windows Server 2012 R2 or 2016. You may see following error message: Windows won't install unless each of these things is taken care of. Close Windows Setup, take care of each one, and then restart Windows Setup to continue. Upgrades to this build have been disabled. The reason is there is a hidden parameter in the image disabled uprading. You can only re-install by the image but cannot do upgrading. You have to ask vendor provide you a right copy, or buy Microsoft official image to do upgrading. I cannot publish the parameter due to legal reason. Most of hardware vendors sale Windows copy along with new hardware. This kind of Windows calls OEM version. There are several different versions of Windows: OEM SLP - This key comes pre-installed in Windows, when it comes from the Factory. This key is geared to work with the OEM Bios Flag found only on that Manufacturer's compu

I built a simple Auto Deploy environment by vSphere 6.5 on nested environment. I created virtual ESXi hosts on a physical ESXi host to do the testing. The whole configuration was smoothly, I'm impressed Auto Deploy can be implemented in few hours. One thing bothered me was networking. New ESXi hosts cannot get IP addresses properly somehow. It's not a single problem. The symptoms are ESXi hosts cannot get IP address, or the Configure Management Network was grayed out on console, or ESXi hosts can get IP address but no responding to ping. Just quick post my solutions here. To fix all these problems you need to do following: Enable Promiscuous Mode on the vSwtich which is attached to nested ESXi hosts on physical ESXi hosts. (I did that on Web Client of vCenter 6.5 U1. You may see different procedure on earlier versions.) Edit the host profile of  Auto Deploy — Networking configuration — Host port group — Highlight Management Network — The option Determine how MAC a

You may not able to remove NetApp folders after uninstall NetApp Virtual Storage Console for VMware. The reason is customized fonts are still loaded by Windows. You need to delete all fonts values mapped to NetApp VSC folder in Windows register HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionFonts .

Noticed a interesting limitation on VMware virtual machines. If you configure multiple SCSI controllers and distribute more than  8 virtual  disks. You may experience randomly OS boot up failure when power cycle VMs. Only last 8 disks with higher SCSI ID present in boot order settings of BIOS. You cannot choose the disks with lower SCSI ID. You need to following up VMware KB " Changing the boot order of a virtual machine using vmx options (2011654) " to force virtual machines boot up on proper SCSI node.

Reporting is important to management. To be a IT Pro, you may need to run regular reports for management. Some reports may be generated time consume. vRealize Operations Manager is an alternative to create customized reports. It's a powerful product to organize data and create PDF or CSV files on scheduled intervals. I recommend have a look if you have planned to implement performance, capacity and alarm system for virtual environment. What if budget is constrained? Is there a way to create such kind of reports? The answer is "Yes". I worked out an automatic workflow to create the reports. I will not provide step-by-step guide in this post since it's advanced integration of multiple products, everyone may have different way to do that. You can even create everything by script if you have strong programming skill. I'm not, I only look for the easiest way to achieve the goal. Here is a scenario for  example: I want to run a monthly report for vSphere CPU and memory

I was trying to update one Windows Server 2016 by standalone patch file. Somehow nothing happened after I double click the installer file. That's because Windows Server 2016 prevent execute the  file due to it's download from internet. The quick fix is right click the file - Properties - Check Unblock - Click OK button. Further more. The file has ADS (alternate data streams) attached. The ADS marked the file as download from internet . You can run following two PowerShell commands to figure out object and value of the ADS. PS C:> Get-Item test file.msu -Stream * PSPath : Microsoft.PowerShell.CoreFileSystem::C:Userswzheng110917aDow $DATA PSParentPath : Microsoft.PowerShell.CoreFileSystem::C:Userswzheng110917aDow PSChildName : 20171011_KB4038801_Updates.msu::$DATA PSDrive : C PSProvider : Microsoft.PowerShell.CoreFileSystem PSIsContainer : False FileName : C:Userswzheng110917aDownloads20171011_KB4038801_Updates.msu Stream : :$DATA Length : 1241376269 PSPath : Microsoft.Powe

今天是国庆假期的最后一天，真是个神奇的假期，我经历了那么多内心活动。刚开始放假，由于一些神奇的原因导致我的思绪被一直打扰，甚至要求和朋友一起喝酒。过去的日子历历在目，而只有我一个人知道。我不知道应该怎么做才对，也许就这么拖着吧，自己就把自己心里的恶魔杀死了。 拍了全家福和家人们一起吃了顿中秋饭。这次的化妆水平我还是比较满意的，老婆的打扮也非常适合她的新发型——短发。我们一起拍了自拍，看着就像是即将上台的两位男女主持人一样。花了三个多小时，引逗师使出浑身解数让嘉乐也配合的很好。最后选片子的日子选在了十月二十一日。希望这次的全家福不会像上次一样失真了。上次是团购的100多块的全家福，拍出来整个家庭都迷失了，不过想想人家也就赚了一百多块，5个人，还想怎样？这次可花了3000块，还是在芳妮豆丁拍的，我们在这里已经拍了结婚照、孕妇照、满月照等。 和老婆孩子一起休闲的逛了一天。本来是要去秦岭野生动物园的，假日里车太多，快到门口了实在没法进去，怕堵在里头进退两难，就没凑那热闹，调头去了咸阳新开的王府井outlet，然后去了附近的渭滨公园，里头有个小型动物园，虽然很小，但是也让小家伙很兴奋，很高兴。他还亲自给马啊、羊啊、猪啊的喂了红萝卜和大白菜，还看了大老虎。我想这会给他未来做一个有爱心的人打下心灵的基础吧。回家时天都黑了，我们还是第一次如此放松的随便在路上找了个饭店就进去了，一家卖旗花面的，还挺好吃，嘉乐吃了两碗，他还第一次看到了牛蛙。 和兄弟们一起喝了场酒。聊了政治八卦、各自的近况、公益和爱心。一场充满正能量、爱心、感情交流的酒。“董局”越来越有政府基层干部的派头了，严谨 ，少语。我告诉他我是多么佩服他在孩子出现问题的时候依旧能保持乐观，他跟我们讲了公益和献爱心，深为感动。这场酒里让我最惊讶的是“小李子”的变化，我们一致认为感情是我们之间最强的纽带，可是不知道为什么，他的一番表述后，我感觉到了很浓的商业气息，也许他急需物质上的满足吧。“刘站长”依旧沉默，但是看得出比以前要自信一些了，也在寻找着下一个老婆，我倒觉得他更适合一个人单着，至少自由。“高总”不再信蓝道长的话了，依旧在烦恼孩子的归属问题，这次聊天也让我知道了他的经济压力比较大，我依旧在内疚当初没有借给他更多的钱帮他度过难关。 最后一天，和老婆的朋友们在家里搞了个聚会，不是很完美的聚会。下次希望我们可以做的更好，更洋气一些

科技的发展真是非常快，十年前我还在用Windows Server 2003 和 Windows XP。十年后的今天，我们已经初尝到人工智能的味道。有那么多的Apps、网站、技术帮助我们更快速的学习新知识，人们的生活节奏越来越快，甚至学习这个人类的基本技能也在传统方式上增加了“碎片时间”方式（一个被“逻辑思维”所倡导的，2017年很流行的学习新方式）。 各种高科技的今天，我们可以用智能手机记录生活中的点点滴滴，甚至影像资料。但是“思想”，这个人类智力的核心却是无法记录的，唯文字可以反映作者当时的状态、情绪和记忆。在快节奏的城市生活中，我们有时候是需要慢下来、停下来的。回头看看自己的过去，读读当时的思想，回忆回忆曾经的记忆。很久前网络上开始流行一句话，大意是“别走得太快，等一等灵魂”（可能是假的名人名言）。我想也许文字可以做到这点。 这个国庆假期，利用空闲时间在网络上搜索搭建SS服务器的资料，无意间看到 逗比根据地 上的一篇文章介绍一个给互联网上所有网站做历史快照的网站，就随手搜了搜我的过去，竟然无意间发现了自己十几年前写的博客。这些文章早已被我遗留在互联网的某个角落，忘记了。看起来那应该是我从MSN Live空间搬过去的，还依稀记得2000年那会儿博客非常火爆，互联网企业都在推各自的免费博客服务，微软也不例外，但是后来好像因为这种服务不赚钱，以及监管原因，大量的博客服务开始关停，微软也不例外。幸好我当时把文章都转移了，今天才有机会帮我回忆起当时的状态。 非常高兴我可以重读当年的心力路程，让我再次如身临其境般的回到那个时代、回到那个状态。我会尝试花一些时间记录生活，给我的未来留下些参考。